By Faith Nyasuguta
Some 10 people have been shot dead and many others wounded as thousands of Sudan residents protested against October’s coup, in Khartoum and other cities on Wednesday.
The pro-democracy doctors’ union said that in the northern suburbs of the capital alone, seven people were shot dead by the security forces which aimed at “the head, the neck or the torso”.
Since October 25 when the military took over, over 34 people, including three teenagers, have been killed and hundreds injured.
On Wednesday at about midday, the junta cut off all telephone communications, while the Internet has been inaccessible in the country since the start of the coup.
This is reported to have affected mobilization which eventually affected the turn out of the protest.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane on October 25 reshuffled the deck in a transition that had been shaky for months.
He dismissed almost all civilians in power and put an end to the sacred union formed in 2019 by civilians and the military.
During the revolution that overthrew dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, over 250 demonstrators died. One of its spearheads, the association of Sudanese professionals, denounced Wednesday “foul crimes against humanity”, accusing the security forces of “premeditated murders”.
“Today, the repression is fierce, there was a lot of violence, tear gas and sound grenades continuously,” Soha, a 42-year-old protester, told AFP.
“I saw a gunshot wound behind me and there were a lot of arrests” in Khartoum, she added.
The police, however, gave the assurance of not opening fire with the state television announcing the opening of a probe on the killed demonstrators.
Late Wednesday evening, protestors continued to hold their barricades in the northern suburbs of Khartoum to say “No to military power“, while the marches in other cities of Sudan had been halted.
Experts have indicated that still, there is no solution in sight.
